As I stated two weeks ago, when we welcomed the new month of Shvat, the name for today’s holiday is actually just the date. Tu is how one would pronounce the two letter abbreviation for 15 (like Roman Numerals, Hebrew has a number system that uses the letters in various combinations.)
Happy New Year.
What, you ask?
Today is the New Year for trees. One of the four new years that exist in the Hebrew calendar. (The others are the first day of Nisan, right
Continue reading Today is Tu B’Shvat
Happy New Year!!!!!
Don’t be so surprised. Because today is one of the four new years that exist in the Hebrew calendar. (The others are the first day of Nisan, right before Passover, which is the new year for kings and festivals; the first day of Elul, the new year for tithing; and the first of Tishrei, which we all know as Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.) Tu B’Shvat, today’s new year, is when the earliest blooming trees in the State of Israel begin their next fruit-bearing cycle.
Continue reading The Almond Trees are Growing
I’ve written about Norman Borlaug often. (Here’s but one example.) Back when I was younger, he was advocating for what we now call the Green Revolution. And, while Borlaug was promoting methods to increase agricultural yields world-wide, there was a competing voice, that of William Vogt.
Continue reading Optimism v. Pessimism. Boserup v. Malthus.
